RedLeader289

iTrader: (2)

My car has no headliner, no old board, nothing. As many of you probably know, finding even a junk one to redo in a scrap yard is near impossible.

I see that I can shell out between $160-$250 bucks for a new one, I'd really rather not...

Which leads to my question: Has anyone on here made one from scratch? I have a few ideas in my head of how to make it work, but I thought if someone on here has done the same thing it might give me a better footing on where to start.

Thanks

alicat

I am going to make my own from 3 mm MDF, and cover with fabric. I made my own door panels the same way, as the old ones were badly warped. If you make a cardboard template of the headliner and trim to the correct size,then you can work from that.

I hope this gives you some help. It is nice to make things yourself, and if you take your time you can get a nice result.

Alicat.

RedLeader289

iTrader: (2)

Thanks! That's basically what I had in mind, it's good to hear it from someone else. I agree on making stuff yourself, plus, it's fun!

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

If it's a hardtop, doable, but will take some fitting work. I made one for one of my jeeps with a sheet of wood paneling, went well with the outdoor motif of the jeep.
Ttop, well, you will find that that shape is super complex and nearly impossible to do from scratch.
There was an episode on one of those car build shows, might have been overhauling, where they made a custom fiberglass headliner with the car upside down on a rotisserie. That way they were able to lay it up directly on the ceiling. Once it was cured, can be removed and modified. They did mention it's pretty much impossible to do without the car being upside down.

RedLeader289

iTrader: (2)

Ah, mine is a t-top, idk, if I pull it off I'll be sure to take lots of pics, haha

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

Certainly. I'm still finishing up the mold I made for ttop headliners.
It's taking a really long time to get right. It's a very difficult shape and the headliner is difficult to get into a good enough plug for a perfect mold. I'm getting close! Just have to fix a few small imperfections and I'll be ready to pop some out.

This is the original headliner I worked with

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

Now made into a plug.

RedLeader289

iTrader: (2)

I see, very cool!

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

And the resulting mold



Sorry for the upside down pics, ipad, don't have time to get to the comp now

RedLeader289

iTrader: (2)

That's pretty awesome, no worries on the upside down-ness. Thanks for the pics

RedLeader289

iTrader: (2)

So, I've been thinking, and then just happened to be on RockAuto one day looking at what parts they carried for my car and *voila* they have headliners...for only $88!!! $125 if you want it in a particular color. It says that's it's an ABS headliner too.

So given that I would end up spending between 50-60 dollars on materials to build one, I think I'm going to save my money for a little bit and go this route.

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

Sure, plenty of people here have those, most aren't happy with the fit. Lots of recent threads on that.

T/Aperformance

I really like the plug you made there, with it like that you could vacuum form carbon fiber ones really easy.

stealtht/a

iTrader: (1)

That's the idea! I'm going to do epoxy fiberglass, regular carbon and colored carbon fiber. Making one for myself in silver/carbon fiber.
I've made a few vacuum bag molds before for marine parts, this is my first auto part mold. I think stared at the deep end! It's been a real challenge. First, the material the headliner is crap and really hard to work with. Also there are no perfect ones around so I had to reconstruct the one I had first. You would not believe how much bondo I've gone through in the last few months!
Then it turns out this is a really difficult shape to lay up resin on. Had quite a few errors in the mold. My standards for quality are really high, so I insist it be perfect. It's been a tedious process getting it there, but I learned a lot about mold production! I' m really close to finished, just have a lot of other projects (that people are waiting for with money) going on as well, so haven't spent as much time as I would like on it. I promise I'll have it done by May at the latest so we can all have nice tt top headliners for this summer.
Stay tuned! Door sills and a new design wing in the works too!